Greece 2nd most popular destination for Russians in 2017

Greece was the second most popular foreign destination for Russian tourists in 2017, according to an analysis report by the Association of Tour Operators in Russia (ATOR), with Turkey taking top spot.

The data from the first 9 months of 2017 showed that Turkey exceeded all estimates for the year (initial projections talked about 3.5-3.7 million Russian tourists), as a total of 4.5 million Russians visited the country, drawing from other popular destinations like Greece, Cyprus, and Thailand. Greece attracted 900,000 Russians.

A total of 11.62 million Russians visited the 10 most popular beach destinations for 2017, a 57% rise compared to last year and 15% compared to 2015, but 18.8% less than 2013.

In 2017, Russian outbound tourism (7.4 million tourists) may have failed to return to the pre-crisis levels, but showed signs of recovery compared to 2015 and 2016.

In 2013, before the crisis, Turkey was the absolute leader in foreign destinations for the Russian market (14.3 million tourists in the top 10 destinations abroad) and together with Egypt, it accounted for 50% of the flows among the 10 most popular destinations. Turkey, Egypt, Thailand, Spain, and Greece made up 4/5 of the tourist flows from Russia abroad. Greece was the 4th most popular choice with 1.35 million Russians.

In 2016, Egypt and Turkey fell dramatically, with Greece coming in second place of preference with 900,000 Russians visiting.